Laser Cooling and Trapping Group

Welcome

The Laser Cooling and Trapping Group studies the physics of laser cooling, electromagnetic trapping and other radiative manipulation of neutral atoms and dielectric particles. These fundamental studies are used to develop applications to new kinds of physics measurements and processes such as high resolution spectroscopy, atomic clocks, atomic collisions, quantum information processing, quantum simulation, atom optics, and bio-molecular interactions.

Programs/Projects

Nonlinear Optics and Non-classical Light—Nonlinear optics provides a way to generate light with different frequencies and different quantum statistical properties. We have developed a nonlinear 4-wave mixing technology in atomic vapors …

Multi-Photon Laser Cooling—Laser cooling of atoms is a powerful and widely used tool in atomic physics. Traditional laser cooling relies primarily on the mechanical effect of single-photon transitions between ground states …

Spinor Condensates and Ultracold Collisions—Interactions between cold atoms can provide us with the means to manipulate matter on the smallest scales. Collisions between laser-cooled atoms, in particular amongst those in Bose-Einstein …

Conceptual image of the synthetic magnetic field produced by our group.